Nearly one quarter of the capital’s lowest-paid workers have been going to a foodbank as often as once a week or more, reports Noah Vickers, Local Democracy Reporter

More than half of the almost 600,000 Londoners who do not earn a ‘real living wage’ have had to resort to using a foodbank in the last year, a new report has revealed.

According to polling by Survation, 23% of the capital’s lowest-paid workers have been going to a foodbank as often as once a week or more, with a further 28% saying that they have gone to one at least once in the last year.

Approached for a response to the findings, the government said it is “changing the rules to put more money in working people’s pockets”, in a bid to reduce the “unacceptable” level of need seen at foodbanks across the country.

The Living Wage Foundation (LWF) commissioned the survey for its annual report looking at what life is like for the 574,000 Londoners who are paid less than £13.15 an hour – which they say is the capital’s real living wage.

The rate has been calculated for the LWF by the Resolution Foundation as the minimum amount needed to meet the cost of living in London, based on a basket of household goods and services. Outside of London, due to the generally lower cost of living, they calculate that amount to be currently £12 per hour.

Some 15,000 businesses across the country, including about 4,000 in London, have voluntarily signed up to pay their staff the LWF’s real living wage.

It differs from the government’s ‘national living wage’ – which is the minimum legal hourly rate of pay for those aged 21 and over, currently set at £11.44 across the UK. Those aged between 18 and 21 are entitled only to what is still called the ‘minimum wage’, set at just £8.60 an hour.

The Survation polling found that 36% of Londoners earning below the LWF’s real living wage had “skipped meals regularly for financial reasons” in the last year.

According to the same survey of low-paid Londoners, 45% say that they are worse off than they were a year ago, with a further 29% saying they are neither better nor worse off. Only 16% reported being “somewhat better off” and a further 5% said they were “a lot better off”.

Some 68% said that earning less than the real living wage was worsening their anxiety levels, 66 per cent said it was affecting their quality of sleep, and 57% said it was impacting their physical health.

Emily Hodgson, head of partnership and campaigns at the LWF, said: “As inflation eases, it’s important to remember that low-paid Londoners continue to face the brunt of persistent high prices.

“Our findings today highlight the detrimental impact this continues to have on their mental and physical health. We’re grateful to the 4,001 London employers who continue to demonstrate their commitment to providing a real living wage to their workers, ensuring they are paid enough to meet their everyday needs.”

In its manifesto ahead of the general election this summer, Labour said that once in government, the party wanted to “make sure the minimum wage is a genuine living wage” and to “change the remit of the independent Low Pay Commission so for the first time it accounts for the cost of living”.

A government spokesperson said in response to the LWF’s latest report: “The mass dependence on foodbanks is unacceptable, which is why we are changing the rules to put more money in working people’s pockets, including younger workers.

“We have been clear that we need to consider the impact on businesses, the employment prospects of young people and the impact on the wider economy, which is what we have instructed the Low Pay Commission to do.

“We believe a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay and by working in conjunction with business, that’s exactly what our Make Work Pay plans will do.”

LWF research has also found that, despite London having previously been amongst the regions with the lowest incidence of low pay, there is now a higher rate of jobs which fail to pay a ‘real living wage’ in London (13.3%) compared to the UK as a whole (12.9%).

The report states: “Of all UK regions, London has seen the least progress on eradicating low pay since 2012, with only a three percentage point decrease in the proportion of low paid jobs between 2012 and 2023, less than half the UK’s average reduction over the same period.”

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